Welcome back to another gathering of everyone’s favorite crafty squirrels! (There’s a sentence you never thought you’d hear, right?) We are digging through our stash of supplies we’ve squirreled away and challenging ourselves to use something old… well, at least 2 years old. Now, to be honest, most of my stash is wwwwwaaaaayyyyy older than that, and I could have chosen almost anything and still met the 2 year requirement, but for my Squirrel Sisters who buy supplies more frequently (looking at you, Marie and Lounon!), old to them is 2 years or more. They would probably consider my stash to be “moldy oldies” 😅 OK, so before I show you my card, let me give you the short hop list so you know where to go from here. And if you are coming to my blog from the charming V Fairchild’s blog, Passions and Distractions, I welcome you!

• V Fairchild
• Karen Page – YOU ARE HERE
• Marie Bingaman
• Anna Mahtani
• Lounon Riviere

You don’t have to be a regular around here to know that I struggle to find creative mojo 😉. This month was no exception. I plopped down at my desk with no idea where to start. I keep a stash of bits and bobs that I’ve started and not finished, or used to audition on other cards. I started by digging through that stash trying to find a spark of inspiration.

Low and behold a card base stamped with fern leaves grabbed my attention. I remember starting this card front for a hop we did where the theme was stitching because I was going to stitch flowers to add to it and ran out of time. (I went back to see when that was… August of 2021, so even this pre-started card base is over 2 years old! LOL!) I wasn’t in the mood to stitch this time, so I had to find a new direction. The fern images are from a My Favorite Things set called Large Desert Bouquet (circa 2019). I picked a color palette of Distress Oxide inks in Festive Berries, Abandoned Coral, Ripe Persimmon, and Squeezed Lemonade (all of which are at least 2 years old too). My best guess is that the leaves were stamped in Mowed Lawn and Evergreen Bough. I stamped out the flowers from the same MFT Large Desert Bouqet set, and die cut them with the coordinating dies. I went back in and stamped flower centers in black Versaclair ink. Despite waiting 24 hours in between stamping, the black still faded back to a brownish IRL, which is frustrating. I found a Mother’s Day sentiment from a Simon Says Stamp set called Best Mom Ever (circa 2016).

After futzing with the flower arrangement and sentiment, I stamped the sentiment direct on the card base and then layered up the flowers with various thicknesses of foam tape for dimension. All things considered it was an easy card, but being so rusty at crafting, it took longer than I care to admit to! Here’s a look at all that dimension:

This card is headed to my bestie, because it was due to her being an awesome mom to her daughter that we even met and became friends! OK, so now its time for you to hop on over to my dear friend Marie’s blog (I assure you, she’s not just Another Card Maker 😉) to see what she whipped up for you! Her cards always inspire me!!! With only 5 stops in the hop, you should be able to hop on through in no time, and that’s even with leaving us each some comment love along the way! Thank you so much for stopping by and I hope we inspire you to dig through your crafty stash of old supplies to make something too!